Protective passport issued by Swedish consulate in Budapest. Initialed by Raoul Wallenberg, later honored as one of the Righteous Among the Nations and an Honorary Citizen of the United States.
Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, was sent to Nazi-occupied Hungary to issue protective passports to Jews that would prevent them from being sent to death camps and allow them to go out in public without marking themselves with the Star of David. Upon arrival, Wellenberg greatly expanded the number of passports intended to be given out and updated the design to look more official under the correct assumption that a document that appeared to have authority would be enough to convince fascist officials in Hungary, even though the Schutz-Passes actually had no legal bearing. Wellenberg also designated buildings in Budapest as safe houses and soup kitchens for Jews, claiming them as sovreign Swedish territory, also without any legal authority. He is credited with saving tens of thousands of lives.
This particular Schutz-Pass was issued to Eugen Radvany and was endorsed by Carl Ivan Danielsson and Raoul Wallenberg.
Place of origin: Budapest, Hungary
Audio transcript:
This Schutz-Pass, a protective passport, was issued to Eugen Radvany and was endorsed by Carl Ivan Danielsson and Raoul Wallenberg.
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of lives in Nazi-occupied Hungary by printing false passports for Jews. Wallenberg was sent to Budapest by the Swedish government to provide legal passports to Swedish Jews that would prevent them from being sent to death camps and allow them to go out in public without making themselves with the Star of David, but when he arrived in Hungary, Wallenberg realized there were far more Jews in danger than the Swedish nationals he had been officially sent to help and so he greatly expanded passport production and distribution.
Operating under the correct assumption that a document that looked official would be enough to convince fascist authorities, Wallenberg designed and printed protective passports with no actual legal bearing to give to Jews. Wallenberg also designated buildings in Budapest as safe houses and soup kitchens, claiming them as sovereign Swedish territory, also without any legal authority.
Wallenberg was arrested by Soviet officials in 1945 and never seen again. His cause and time of death, as well as what the Soviet government wanted with him remain a mystery. It is speculated that he was arrested for espionage.
Wallenberg is honored by Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations and by the United States as an honorary citizen.